Book review The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Book review: The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

Introduction

The Crucible is one of the plays written by Arthur Miller, a playwright from America. The book dramatizes the way witch hunting and witch trials took place at Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692 through 1693. The play is a metaphorical depiction of the McCarthyism which was evident by the blacklisting of a communist that was accused by the government of United States. The playwright was once interrogated in 1956 with accusations of anti-American activism. Miller was in fact accused of having contempt of the congress. This was because he had deliberately ignored the presence of some members of the American congress in his meetings. This was the foundation of this play. This drama was performed on the first time at Martin Beck Theater in 1953 (Abbotson, 2007, p.117). It was reviewed later and it won the best play award in the same year (Wilmeth & Bigsby, 1998, p.415). It is one of the principle American plays.

Strength of the play

The strengths of the Crucible include: the ability to create, develop and use characters in realizing the requirements of this drama. Miller does not directly use real characters from the community he depicts in this play. This creativity in developing new characters to fit perfectly in a certain role is strength of this play. The author also uses metaphorical language to bring out themes and characters, for example, he says, “Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up.” (132). This is a literary strength.

The title of the play is another source of strength. Crucible is a word that is used to define a metallic container that smelters use to subject other metals to extremely high rates of temperatures. Millers use it metaphorically to represent the subjection of every character in this play to certain difficult test. They are put through hot situations and environment just like a metal would be put in the crucible and made to go through very high temperatures. If a certain metal is pure, it does not melt when put through a certain degree of heat. On the contrary, the impure metals will quickly melt under the same circumstances. In the same way, characters with above the notch characters are able to win through even when they are just about to be killed, for example Rebecca Nurse and John proctor. This is seen as symbolism; that they refused to melt. According to Miller, these characters chose this dangerous path to have a fulfillment of a life worth of their principles. He says, ‘“Do you take it upon yourself to determine what this court shall believe and what it shall set aside?” (79).’

Weaknesses of the Play

These include: the plot of this play is untrue to the actual historical age of the events. There exist a wide disparity between the actual period when these events of witch hunting happened in America and the period that the playwright depicts. The events of witch hunting happened in 1692 through 1693 at the Bay of Massachusetts. The play is then written later like an allegory resulting from McCarthyism after the government of United States convicts a communist in 1956. Miller is also accused by the United States Congress of being anti-American when he refused to acknowledge the presence of other congress men in his meetings.

In addition, the other weakness of this play is that some of the characters are underwritten. This makes the reader have a restricted access to the understanding of their thoughts. The author ought to have given these minor characters a more expansive space to take part in the occurrences so that the reader can have a clear basis of attaching their character. Such characters include Ezekiel Cheever, Thomas Putnam and Betty Parris among others. The author says that human beings are of equal and crucial importance. Abigail Williams, the antagonist of this drama, (Bloom 2008, p.10) and John Proctor, the main protagonist, (Ram 1988, 22) are given too much prominence.

The other weakness in this play is that the setting is especially restricted. This is because most scenes occur in rooms and in the court only. This limits the readers’ outlook of the play as a whole. This also depicts that the author may have deliberately omitted some important parts of the play as he tried to narrow down the sceneries. It is also an indication that the play is not wholesome since it does not include the whole picture of the people, their complete environment and culture. It is therefore not inclusive.

Major themes in this play

These includes: the theme of fear, individuality and reputation. The theme of fear is brought out clearly in the play. Human beings fear everything that they cannot understand. They see what is not familiar to them as a source of threat. In the Crucible, the people of Salem feared that their land would be overwhelmed by evil spirits if they allowed witch craft to take roots in their country. It is this fear that develops into hysteria, anxiety and even to paranoia. Fear spreads from one individual to the other at a very speedy rate. For example he says, “The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom.” (6) The author is convincing in his demonstration of this theme. He gives relevant examples. For example, Betty says that she had seen Martha Bellow in the company of the devil and this makes Abigail to also begin accusing the people of town. She also accuses Sibber. Because fear is hysterical, other young girls also begin making similar accusations. From this point, everybody in Salem becomes very fearful of witches or even the impact of others accusing them as witches. People are naturally fearful of unknown things.

The theme of individuality is also depicted in this play. The government of Salem suppresses the minority and support individuality. The author says, “This predilection for minding other people’s business was time-honored among the people of Salem, and it undoubtedly created many of the suspicions which were to feed the coming madness.” (4). The playwright is convincing in his depiction of this theme because he persistently uses various characters to expound it through examples. For example, John Proctor and Elizabeth try to push for individual considerations but the Salem community does not have a place for what is not communal. It is also Elizabeth who tries to convince her accusers that there is nothing like witchcraft when she says, “A wide opinion’s running in the parish that the Devil may be among us, and I would satisfy them that they are wrong.” (26).

The other major theme is the theme of reputation. They did not believe in having their names soiled, for example, “These people had no ritual for the washing away of sins. It is another trait we inherited from them, and it has helped to discipline us as well as to breed hypocrisy among us.” (19). Several characters in the play take certain actions in order to safeguard their reputation. For example, he convincingly shows that it is because of reputation that John proctor does not testify against Abigail. Reputation also makes him chose to die and leave a good reputation behind. He says “Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up.” (132)

Author’s writing motive

The author’s motive of writing this book was to demonstrate the social and political ills that the society goes through. The author was a victim of the fight for a capitalist world by America. He was even questioned by American congress for not recognizing the congress members in some of his meetings. This provoked him to write about the evils that political fight against individualism, instilling of fear, and the need to safeguard ones reputation may bring about in the society. He writes that the leadership believed that it was in control of every aspect of the society, “They believed, in short, that they held in their steady hands the candle that would light the world. We have inherited this belief, and it has helped and hurt us.” (5). The Author’s larger political and social agenda of this play is to portray the challenges that people go through due to fear, individual stands, and in defense of their reputation. In the social and political spheres today people are still fearful of the unknown, for example, people fear terror threats. For example, the Al-Qaeda led by the late Osama bin Laden’s twin attacks in America on September 11^th. Governments of the world have organized for more surveillance, security checks and armed follow up on the terrorists. This is similar to what was happening at Salem when people feared what would happen next if the evil spirits engulfed their land; they believed in the execution of the witches and even the suspects of witchcraft.

Relevance of the play today

In conclusion, in today’s political spectrum, the author would be classified as a strong advocate of democracy and leadership integrity. This is because his work has great relevancy to what the society is going through politically. For example, the author seems to passionately advocate for individualism and the freedom of self expression. He says, “The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom.” (6). This means that if a leader is clean, they should be incorruptible by any political evils like power, money and positions. They turn to evil ways like corruption, witchcraft and witch hunting, assassinations and election rigging. This tarnishes their names and reputation. Millers says, “The witch-hunt was not, however, a mere repression. It was also, and as importantly, a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to publicly express his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims.” (7)

Works Cited

Abbotson, Susan. Masterpieces of 20th-century American Drama. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2005. P. 117

Bloom, Harold. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Chelsea House, 2008. p.8

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin, 1995. Pp 4,5,6,7,19,26,79,132

Ram, Atma. Perspectives on Arthur Miller. Abhinav. 1988. P. 22

Wilmeth, Don, and Bigsby, Ellen. The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 3 (1998) 415